SSD, solid state disks, are becoming increasingly popular among users for their quick access times and high read and write rates which allow computers to load an operating system and programs far more quickly than traditional spinning hard drives. They offer users a number of other advantages including silent operation, lighter weight and superior battery life. As the number of users grows so does the need for data recovery services that can restore data from a non-functional SSD.

SSDs store data using NAND memory chips such as Flash and DDR RAM in an array of individual bits with a data controller and master remapping tables which specify what and where the information is. The kinds of physical failures suffered by SSDs tend to be different to those of hard disks, as hard disks use spinning platters with read heads they are far more prone to major physical failure as well as being wiped by magnetic fields. SSDs tend to fail progressively through out their life times as individual data cells cease to function after a number of writes. This kind of data failure is often recoverable by repairing the file if the failure is singular and then the sector is avoided in future. More serious physical failures involve drives that a computer will no longer recognise. This kind of failure cannot be fixed on site and will inevitably require the services of a data recovery company. Usually the drive will be sent to a repair centre so they can assess it and quote a price for the work. Failures like this may be with the master controller chip which can be physically replaced allowing full recovery of the drive`s contents. A failure of the master mapping table usually mean the data is unrecoverable.

SSDs are physically extremely tough, far tougher than hard drives meaning that even the most extreme events such as dropping from height or fire damage a data recovery company will often be able to recover part or even all of the data from a drive making it worthwhile to contact a data recovery company. If a drive is unrecoverable most will not bill you.

More common than physical failure is logical failure of the data on an SSD. This can be the accidental deletion of files by a user or more severely formatting over useful data. Both of these can be recovered, accidental deletion can even be recovered by the user themselves with the correct kind of program. When data is deleted on normal and solid state harddrives it isn`t removed from the disk, the space is recorded as free rather than occupied and written over next time a file is written to the disk. This means if an accidental deletion occurs it is vital to stop using the disk and not write any more files to it or the deleted files are very likely to become corrupted and completely unrecoverable. Data recovery companies will be needed to recover data from a formatted disk as this is a more specialised task but still achievable.

As more enterprise laptops use SSD to store data due to their significantly greater battery life there will be more failures involving vital business data as well as personal. Contacting a data recovery company can solve your problem at a competitive price.